i am trying to work with hobie egineer jim on some of my modifications. I have had another safety issue and i am very surprised that none of you have had this happen becasue you would have posted it if you had. however it will happen if you keep sailing rough water. Aloha Boogie-D

Well now I'm intrigued

Let us know more if you can so we can keep on eye on whatever needs to be watched.

i have found a good replacement pin for the rudder. since the new replacement pin i have had not one issue. i am trying to work with hobie egineer jim on some of my modifications. I have had another safety issue and i am very surprised that none of you have had this happen becasue you would have posted it if you had. however it will happen if you keep sailing rough water.

Since you have discovered a safety issue and a new rudder pin, is there some reason you can't discuss these things? If not, then what's the point in bringing them up??

rudder assembly in one piece. sleeve inserted thru gudgeon at top smooth shanked stainless bolt runs thru into brass sleeve in stern of kayak to sleeve in lower gudgeon this sleeve has a nut welded to it at its base, lower part of bolt has a thread this screws into the nut, just a couple of turns will do. Wings coming out of assembly on either side (not yet made!) rudderlines pass thru shackle attached to wings and tie back onto themselves using a prussic knot. To remove the rudder undo bolt, push prussic knots to the stern. I know its going to be a pain to do all this in knee deep water, but i think the rudder would hold at sea and in stronger winds.

Rudder ITSELF, at present, too flexible where its single ply but with light weight cloth and epoxy it will be stiff.

I have only roughed out the rudder at present and my new assembly will be with me shortly...by the time that breaks, i will probably have finished my homemade one.

Philip, the problem with your design is your rudder is pretty much locked down which wouldn't work in my area. We have a lot of shallow water around here and during low tide, I occasionally need to quickly pull the rudder up and use the paddle to steer over shallow areas. Yesterday I had to do that due to low tide so I pulled the rudder up and used my paddle as a tiller and sailed the last couple hundred yards of shallow water back to the beach.

Yesterday while sailing in Tampa bay there were rough seas and it was pretty windy. No other boats were anywhere to be seen due to the conditions and my rudder worked pretty good. Occasionally it was a little soft but I didn't reef in the sail like I should have and probably was stressing the boat a bit too much. I was going 9 mph a few times and am very happy with the performance of my AI. I test my boat often in pretty rough conditions.

The other cool thing was I used my dodger yesterday and it made a big difference. I got hit in the face with water a few times but the dodger was nice keeping my legs and torso out of the wind and water.

Absolutely locked down, Jim. If you struck anything with it it wouldnt kick up. I appreciate the problems this could cause but where I am theres only a 2 meter tide range so it would work for me. What made me think of having the rudder locked down is that when I go windsurfing I have a fin in the back of my board....its fixed, I havent yet ripped it out of its finbox so why not a rudder that stays down too? I would just have to be a little more attentive coming into the shallows, hop out remove the rudderpin, slack off the steering lines and stuff the rudder under the bungee at the stern. I would be prepared to go with that if it meant I could go out and play in a decent breeze without rounding up and/or busting stuff....

...ahem.....on a completely different subject I have to come clean, you got me on the fishing...

......it wasnt my 2nd fish!!!....I caught a rather insignificant one first time round so I guess it was actually my 3rd...other than that never owned a rod in my life before I bought this one 6 weeks ago. Beginners luck...I probably wont get so much as a bite for months to come!

One of Aloha Dan's references to Phil's Foils comes to mind: (if a rudder is going to break, it usually breaks where it enters the headstock). You might want to beef up the area where the thinner foil joins the thicker top area -- if you were to overload the rudder, this is likely where it would break.

One of Aloha Dan's references to Phil's Foils comes to mind: (if a rudder is going to break, it usually breaks where it enters the headstock). You might want to beef up the area where the thinner foil joins the thicker top area -- if you were to overload the rudder, this is likely where it would break.

Thanks roadrunner, good point...thats a weak point... I will chamfer the base of the headstock further and beef up that area.